Harold McGee’s book On Food and Cooking has been sitting on my cookbook shelf for way too long. On the occasional ambitious evening when I get home past midnight I pull it out for a read, but am usually so tired from work I don’t get very far. Many call this book the bible of cooking for the very reason that McGee explores the reason why things happen in cooking. Why does yeast make bread rise? Why is it that potatoes oxidize and chocolate needs to be tempered?
I made a deal with a friend of mine to read this book cover to cover, not just skimming the index. I am mentioning it here as a way to push myself on those nights when I get home from work and would rather search through my dvr than read a book. It has been written!
School was only 9 months and I still have so much more to learn. The next couple of months I am going to scour my cookbooks and culinary references to supplement what I’m doing in the kitchen. A series on The Science and Lore of the Kitchen seems like a fun idea. Yes I used the words science and fun in the same sentence. I really don’t know what has come over me.
